A new Shenmue game was announced during the pre-E3 Sony press conference. By the end of the conference (about 40 minutes later) the Kickstarter project had already raised over five hundred thousand dollars out of the 2,000,000 pledge!

At the time of posting this, the project already received nearly 600k USD in funding. Well done Sony!
Update: the project was successfully funded within half a day! Shenmue 3 will be a reality!

Source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3

 

[Walker D]

Weird that Sony is trying to gain attention to themselves, using a Kickstarter, that has nothing to do with them :/

But I guess, the boost in popularity that the Kickstarter gained is all that matters in the end

Awesome that this game is happening... The first Shenmue was a awesome game to me, back in the day

 

[tyrran]

Wow, this is kind of shitty. Not the sequel to Shenmue, I'm really excited about that. But crowdfunding? Really Sony? You ponied out Yu Suzuki in the middle of what must have been a multi-million dollar presentation, showed some clips on screens that cost more than my city block, and then ask people to please chip in to make this dream come true? What, testing the waters before you try and schill the next Tomb Raider game via Indiegogo?

Just sell the fucking game. Don't hang the threat of "we need the fans or the game won't happen" hanging in the air. You're abusing a great system and with zero preamble. Bloodstained and Yooka-Laylee did the same thing, but at least had the courtesy to announce it in a more grounded, social media sort of way, and were up front that they were getting funding from other producers. But this? Just a dump truck of insincerity and lies.

 

[Costello]

Wow, this is kind of shitty. Not the sequel to Shenmue, I'm really excited about that. But crowdfunding? Really Sony? You ponied out Yu Suzuki in the middle of what must have been a multi-million dollar presentation, showed some clips on screens that cost more than my city block, and then ask people to please chip in to make this dream come true? What, testing the waters before you try and schill the next Tomb Raider game via Indiegogo?

Just sell the fucking game. Don't hang the threat of "we need the fans or the game won't happen" hanging in the air. You're abusing a great system and with zero preamble. Bloodstained and Yooka-Laylee did the same thing, but at least had the courtesy to announce it in a more grounded, social media sort of way, and were up front that they were getting funding from other producers. But this? Just a dump truck of insincerity and lies.

I absolutely agree with you.
Though, the fact that the Kickstarter is doing so incredibly well makes me wonder: were Sony right to go through Kickstarter for Shenmue 3?
- financially yes, because they won't need to spend much on the game
- strategically no, because the fact that the Kickstarter got funded so fast shows that the game would have done well if Sony had funded it themselves
Now it just makes Sony look bad.

 

[zoogie]

The real purpose in using kickstarter for AAA is publicity.

The fact that it gets funded by suckers is icing on the cake for the publishers/devs.

 

[endoverend]

This is just a really shitty way to save Sony 2 million dollars for making a game that they don't even care enough about to make it themselves.

 

[LightyKD]

I would drop money of there was a Wii U stretch goal.

 

[Walker D]

Seems like Sony found a way to have free good games

Those cheap bastards

 

[Costello]

The real purpose in using kickstarter for AAA is publicity.

The fact that it gets funded by suckers is icing on the cake for the publishers/devs.

I don't know if we can consider Shenmue to be "AAA"
that ain't call of duty or zelda we're talking about

 

[necromonger]

Over 800k already. Guess they'll reach their goal tomorrow. And wow, shenmue has such a huge fanbase.

 

[cearp]

i'm happy because it means the first two games will probably get a hd release

 

[LightyKD]

Well, looks like I'll be getting this game for PC

 

[oblistar]

A day of dreams.
<<Maybe not too far off. maybe.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I'd be a scumbag if I supported this. I'll wait for the disappointing release.

 

[Costello]

we've almost reached the 1 million bar, in less than two hours.
that's damn impressive

 

[Joe88]

just hit a $1,000,000 in about an hour and a half

 

[Neru]

Awww heck yea!!!!

 

[Clydefrosch]

Over 800k already. Guess they'll reach their goal tomorrow. And wow, shenmue has such a huge fanbase.

well, i'm not sure if its huge, or if the small fanbase is just so desperate that they all feel like chipping an average of 100$ is ok for this.

still can't really believe how multi-million dollar companies abuse kickstarter though. this is not what kickstarter was meant to be for. too bad that kickstarter themselves will always be able to cash in hard with these kinda things, meaning they will do nothing against it.

 

[the_randomizer]

I don't get it. Why are so many companies hellbent on doing kickstarter projects? Can't they just make the game without these crowdfunding projects?

 

[Costello]

I don't get it. Why are so many companies hellbent on doing kickstarter projects? Can't they just make the game without these crowdfunding projects?

maybe it's a way for them to test the waters?